4 ms·
Why should ads be so free to run arbitrary code? It seems to me that in the end Google should be held responsible for anything they serve to others. If they'd b
by hetspookjee 5y ago
Why should ads be so free to run arbitrary code? It seems to me that in the end Google should be held responsible for anything they serve to others. If they'd be fined for this lack of oversight, perhaps they'd block javascript as a whole until they do have proper oversight in place?
- streptomycin 5y agoBecause advertisers pay more for it, and publishers like making money. If Google didn't offer it, someone else would, and they might do even worse than Google at sandboxing the code and trying to filter out abusive ads. Not saying it's a great situation, just explaining why there's not an easy solution.
- hetspookjee 5y agoIt's an odd argument to say that Google must do it in this poor way, as it is atleast better than how the others would do it. If Google stopped offering it to not waste compute cycles of others or invade too much, that would be a good choice. It seems Google would not like to lead by example but rather take the profits and risk the fine as cost-of-doing-business. If google would stop doing it. It would atleast cause >30% of the worldwide ads to run arbitrary code. A massive improvement on both user privacy and climate. The wasted cycles are not free. The solution is easy on Google's side. Just don't do it and accept the reduction in revenue. But I guess the economic incentives are just too big, like you say.